Garmin - no satellites

[Hula Popper]

Took the boat out over the weekend. Had a nice time, except ... my Garmin 178C would not find any satellites.

Depth finder worked, but not the GPS.

Seems serious. Any chance of fixing this, or ... am I shopping for a new unit?

[Dubble Trubble]

If i remember correctly, the 178C has an external antenna. Check that the connections are good. If so, may be a bad antenna. Probably not the unit itself.

Dubble

[Vitz]

Interesting. I have a small Garmin color chartplotter, an older unit with an internal antenna, that I use on my boat as a backup. On Saturday, it would not acquire satellites either. My main unit acquired them fine. After several minutes of trying to acquire them, with no luck, it would give me the option to continue trying to acquire, autolocate, or enter present location. I tried the autolocate option and it finally acquired satellites and began working. Makes you wonder if something was going on with the satellites this weekend. It has always acquired satellites right away, without prompting it to do anything.

[Hula Popper]

OK, that is exactly what I was getting with my Garmin 178C (which has a built-in antenna, not an external one).

Just as you described it. This was Sunday, not Saturday.

I did not try the "auto-locate" option. Instead, I directed it to keep trying to locate the satellites. I have no idea what auto-locate means.

I had never been given any of these options before. In all the times I've used it in the past, it simply ... found the satellites. It took a minute or so, maybe less.

So maybe it was something else ... or, who knows!

If it does it next time, I'll ask it to auto-locate and see what happens.

[zload]

Do you ever update your unit's software?

[MudDucker]

Before you call the government, let me give you the answer ... "It's Bush's Fault". Carry on!

[Dubble Trubble]

They DO have days when certain sats are out, But usually you can still get enough to lock in on.

http://www.navcen.uscg.gov/?Do=constellationStatus


Dubble

[Hula Popper]

No, I've never updated the software.

Oh, man ... that sounds complicated!

[zload]

Not very hard at all here is a link to all the Garmin "Marine" units that have updates. The updates usually fix various glitches update speeds and whatever Garmin decides to put in them. The latest upgrade fixes all prior issues so a good idea to check annually. May not do anything for your issue but then again it may...

The problem if you have an older plotter is having one of the proprietary Garmin data cards and USB reader to download/transfer the updates and they only work on an XP or older PC. You can still find them on Ebay but not cheap. The newer units use standard SD cards and probably wireless by now.

http://www8.garmin.com/support/marinesw.jsp

[Welby]

I hate to say misery loves company, but I'm glad to see this post. I was on the Flint River near Bainbridge Saturday. Same issue with my 498 Garmin. Depth finder worked but no satellites getting picked up. However, I had my old handheld 76c with me and it had no trouble picking up satellites and worked fine. Later in the day the 498 started working right and did for the rest of the trip. I think it's more than coincidence that we all had these issues. I realize both of my units are pretty old but I hate the thought of having to replace one.

[Dubble Trubble]

One other explanation for all this is that the WAAS sats were having issues, and the Garmins set to not lock without WAAS. Not that familiar with the Garmins, but I know my Lowrance can be set to either only use it or not.

The older GPS may have just been locking to the regular GPS accuracy sats.


I think my Lowrance only needs 3 to lock on regular, but needs at least 5 to do WAAS.

Dubble

[tin can]

Had the same issue with my old Garmin a while back. Try using the autolocate function....and be patient. It took mine about 3 minutes then worked fine.

[Hula Popper]

OK, good to know this may not be fatal. I was already shopping for a replacement.

I'll try the auto-locate next time I'm out if this happens again.

Thanks, zload, for the Garmin link. Looks like it needs to be done via a PC (an .exe file). I've got a Mac.

I'll contact Garmin and see what they recommend regarding a software update.

[EddieJoe]

One other explanation for all this is that the WAAS sats were having issues, and the Garmins set to not lock without WAAS. Not that familiar with the Garmins, but I know my Lowrance can be set to either only use it or not.

The older GPS may have just been locking to the regular GPS accuracy sats.


I think my Lowrance only needs 3 to lock on regular, but needs at least 5 to do WAAS.

Dubble

Actually, there is a separate WAAS satellite, and that needs to be connected to give you the extra precision. Sometimes a reset or an auto locate will do the trick, in the case of my garmin it was a faulty antenna that needed replacing. Hard to tell, but the easy stuff is worth a try before sending it in to garmin.